I donât know about you, but I dread getting on the roads here in Atlanta. For those of you who donât know the infamous I-85, I-285 and I-20 interstates, let me just say that you are really putting your life on the line when driving here.
 Okay hereâs just one first hand eye witness example.  Iâm traveling on I-85 when I noticed a woman alongside me driving around 60 miles per hour while putting on makeup; and deciding in deep thought which is the best look to apply given the several choices of mascara and eye liner perched on the dashboard. Oh and to make sure itâs applied perfectly, she looks in the rear view mirror to see apparently if itâs too much or not enough. Mind you, this is not to check on traffic to the rear, but to make sure itâs a good look.
I guess that why it makes me feel good to write an article about someone commended for safe driving practices. Someone like Jonathan Mayweather. This is especially true after witnessing so many examples or reckless driving.
The following is an article I wrote as part of my media specialist and voice over contract with ARI or Automotive Resources International. Itâs the worldâs largest fleet management company.
 For the last five years Jonathan Mayweather has been driving a cargo van weighted down with sensitive tax documents. Mayweather transports this cargo around one of the biggest metropolitan areas in the country as a fleet driver for the Georgia Department of Revenue.
âMy biggest challenge is the Atlanta traffic congestionâ, said Mayweather who has to navigate through what has been deemed one of the worst places in the country for commuters. Mayweather faces the traffic challenges five days a week and so far is accident free. He credits having a great deal of patience in attaining that feat. When asked about his days on the road he replied, âI see a lot of tempers flaring up on the road and that tends to make me even more alert of my traffic surroundings. Among some of the incidents heâs seen along the road are car fires, a helicopter that landed on the interstate and avoidable wrecks where drivers donât pay attention because theyâre following too closely.
Walker along with other drivers at the Georgia Department of Revenue is reminded about the importance of safe driving while conducting state business. He credits one training tool in particular.
âI like the online information alerts for drivers, thatâs great help. I find it especially helpful when determining the right distances to stop to when traveling at a certain rate of speedâ, said Walker.
According to Walker another type of tool gets him safely through the day on the road, âYou have to be extremely humble. Personalities tend to be demonstrated while drivingâ.
Simply put. An aggressive person tends to drive aggressively. If you are an angry person, in my opinion you are likely to show that to the drive in front of you or beside you. But if you are humble and someone cuts you off or seems to be in a greater hurry than you are, you tend to now want to combat that. These are the observations of this veteran driver.
When he is not driving for the Department of Revenue he takes to the road as little as possible in his own vehicle. âI actually like getting a ride from a friend so I can view the road as a passenger and maybe pay attention to the billboards or somethingâ he said.
The Georgia Department of Revenue puts the spotlight on Jonathan Mayweather.
I say this right off the bat. Donât let anyone tell you what canât do. If you want it badly enough, the sky is the limit.
I am guilty of this as I once dampened the spirit of an aspiring broadcaster. While it may have been a dampened spirit, that young manâs dreams werenât rained upon by me or anyone else.
As a program director of a radio station, I received hundreds of air checks of disc jockeys who wanted to work. I would screen them and give an air check the traditional ten second listen. You develop a trained ear in that position and can pretty much tell what fits the sound of the station and many times what you consider a great voice.
I was placed in this responsible position at a young age and should have developed better people and management skills long before having this blessing thrust upon me. Â I can remember this one guy who I will leave nameless, who kept sending me air heck after air check. I wasnât impressed in the least. But I was so arrogant, because I was told all my life how great I sounded.
In actuality I was deaf and blinded to spotting a personâs potential and nurturing budding talent. I kept ignoring this person and sometimes would just toss the tapes in the garbage.
One day I just flat our told him, âyou donâtâ have the pipes to work in the business and you will never succeed in radio.
I am happy that he didnât believe me. Â Some years later, that same person ended up being the national program director for one of the major broadcasting chains. In that capacity he was in charge of all the music played on the stations and the hiring of disc jockeys at all of that companyâs urban outlets.
I met with him about four years ago and he reminded me of my assessment of him. This business is incestuous and you will be intertwined with many people along the way in radio and television.
We actually laughed about those days. Fortunately, I have tempered my demeanor and have grown up since then. I will never tell anyone who has a dream what they canât do.
I hope you never let anyone tell you your dreams canât be realized.
Great singers may do little do to help someone sing. The God given talent is just that unique. But a voiceover talent professional can help a singer with certain speaking challenges to better enunciate words and phrases. That can translate into the spoken word sounding crisp with a greater sense of clarity.
This is firsthand information. As a voiceover talent I was approached by a female singer in her early twenties via my website at www.micmoore.com. Her challenges include but not limited to producing "st" "sn" "sp" "nt" and "L" words. She also has challenges using facial expressions when articulating certain words and phrases.
The very nature of a voiceover talent is speaking clearly. Having good diction and pronouncing the beginning and endings of words is a must.
After two (2) hour sessions using pretty much the learning and study model that speech pathologists implement, she is progressing quite well.
If you are a singer or aspiring singer and face similar challenges, you may want to look up a good voiceover talent. Chances are I may be available.
I look forward to any comments you may have.
Aside from great feeling that comes from helping someone, it's an additional pleasure because she has a beautiful voice.
I also video her and give her a lesson outline to practice in between sessions.....After each session she is sent comments pertaining what she learned. She also receives a video of the session via email, so she can see for herself.
When she realizes she has mastered a challenge, she doesn't say anything but expresses her delight with a subtle smile and great dance move.
Back in Jacksonville Florida things were pretty good for a native New Yorker trying to make his mark in the radio, television and voice over space. I was a popular disc jockey aka "The Voice" on a radio station (WPDQ) there. I had been promoted to program director. I enjoyed even more success when the William Cooke advertising agency chose me to be the radio voice of Winn Dixie supermarkets in the southeastern region. Now add being one of the the dee jays at the hottest nightclub Mr. P's. I even transitioned into being a mid-day disc jockey at WCRJ "Country 107" and got the position of production director there. But I wanted more. More came to me when the news director, Dave Richards at the NBC affiliate (WTLV) gave me an opportunity to be the morning and noon cohost.
Television! Wow! I actually dreamed this as a kid growing up in New York City watching Peter Jennings who I idolized. But unlike everything else that had gone my way; this was not a perfect fit. There were things about television that were foreign to me. The seasoned television vets let me know just how foreign too. They let me know that I had not paid my dues and had entered market number 54 without a struggle. I had not "beat the bushes" (smaller markets where you normally fine tune and hone your skills), nor had I paid the dues that many of them had to pay. I didn't have the "reporter chops" they had. But there was someone other than the news director there who thought I had "IT"
Enter Marcia Ladendorf who made a name for herself in Atlanta as an anchor for CNN. She was now the main anchor at WTLV. For almost six months, three sometimes four nights a week during her dinner break she coached me. She bought dinner for the entire staff so they would stay and run camera and record me. There were times she even ran prompter. Television humbled me. But due in large measure to her efforts, I got better. Dare I say I got really good.
Four years later, I was offered two anchor positions one in St. Louis and the other in Phoenix.
I decided on KTVK in Phoenix. It was a juggernaut of a station, talent laden and headed by a seasoned, crafty news director and support management staff. Before leaving Jacksonville, I let Marcia know that I was indebted to her. I told her that these opportunities were because of her. She said you owe me nothing. Hopefully you will recognize something special in someone and do for them what you feel I have done for you".
In all, I have held anchor positions in Jacksonville, Florida, Phoenix, Arizona, Birmingham, Alabama as its prime anchor and Atlanta, Georgia as a weekend anchor.
Later this month, I will begin teaching at the Connecticut School of Broadcasting here in Atlanta. Things do go full circle. There I hope to pay my blessings forward.
